If I see one, my one and only objective in that battle will (sadly) become destroying it as quickly and as often as possible. Hounding it into oblivion. It's that or stop playing and go cool off.

Way too unbalanced. That's a good way of putting it, actually. Pretty sure it's unbalanced anyway. Removing supplies with a long-distance no-warning shot, with substantial splash, and a pretty decent rate of fire itself? You've noticed how long you survive after getting hit with the Hunter's EMP, right? Or have you tried to play MM battles without using any supplies? It's brutal.

The description of the alteration does not seem to say that it is only the lock-on shot that has the EMP effect. It seems to imply that every shot does--or am I missing something? This is why the splash is gone on the normal shot--so that the effect is limited to one target? Unless you use the lock-on shot, of course. That will get many at once. On the other hand the normal shot has a much faster rate of fire than normal. I have no words. This is a beyond-horrible idea.

Well, I really want that Red shot effect (on an alt.) But I don't want the Ultra skin or the alteration. So...too bad for me. I'd be willing to pay maybe $25 for the shot effect, if I really had to, but....

He doesn't seem to have the 'cosmic blast' paint yet, from his ratings page, so he hasn't hit tier 45 as of my posting this.

I do like the new paints though. You also have a slightly better distribution of them through the tiers than usual. I like that there are no empty tiers on the silver. That was the lamest thing ever.

Full price for each, though? Or reduced price, since it only lasts half as long. Gee, I wonder....? ?

Agreed. But, I always save the Hunter OD for moments critical to the game mode--stopping the flag/ball carrier, stealing a flag, etc. I'm a little contemptuous of opponents who use it against me in a one-on-one dogfight. Like, really dude?! Someone's gonna kill you in a couple seconds anyway.

It's also very good among the low and medium ranks. ? And I absolutely love using it up close, because no one expects you to be able to track them with your fire. But move your hull as well as your turret and there's lots of ways. I use it on a Hunter; perfect combination of maneuverability and stability.

I hear you on that.

I'm not that well versed in many of the alterations for all the turrets, but it seems like there are a fair number of ridiculous ones. I'd love to give a kick in the balls to whoever approved the entry into the game of duplet.

Now, are you absolutely certain you know why I'm saying it, or are you only 96% sure? You must be right though that you ALL knew it. Smoky is my only turret on this account. This is my first one, and it's a specialist. But I have at least 10 accounts, including one where Thunder is the only turret I use, on the Viking and the Hornet. (In the old days, way before the monthly challenges started handing out massive amounts of crystals, and when I was completely opposed to spending real money (I've loosened up) having only a few pieces of equipment on each account was the best way to be able to upgrade and MU them.) I don't want Smoky to get the projectile. And I'm 90% sure it will ruin it, at least for me, and for some others. So far I can't see that Thunder's been ruined. But it's never been a real favorite of mine. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to Thunder getting a little boost in longer range damage, to offset the fact that it will miss more often. I am sorry that I sounded like I was demeaning the Thunder. My love of the Smoky got the better of me. You know Smoky has always been the red-headed stepchild of the turrets. Such an uncool, 'noob' weapon. But I love it. To me it's the epitome of cool. But I've always felt that its damage per shot is so low that you can't afford to miss, ever, or you'll be slaughtered by the next massive damage-per-shot hit or by the massive DPS of the close-range turrets. Every shot has to count. And I've developed that skill, to a reasonable degree. A non-instantaneous shot depresses the hell out of me. Weirdly, I don't know about anyone else, I'm seeing a lot more Smokys in the last 2-3 months than I ever did before, and at quite varying ranks. Been in a couple battles in the last 7 days where there were at least seven Smokys on the two teams combined.

I thought it was comparable to Smoky! (The hunter alt, that is.) Which is kind of annoying, in a way. Smoky being my favorite turret from the beginning, and I'm jealous for it to stay competitive. But they're likely to ruin that turret momentarily--and that's a different thread. I feel the same as Tidebreaker, that the Hunter alt is very underrated. Very effective for me, and I really enjoy the play-style on a nimble hull. But I also kind of agree with 123tim; you could say it's like a slower-traveling thunder. There are now a bunch of alts that thoroughly overlap a turret with another turret, aren't there? I can't say whether that's good or bad.

I didn't know, or forgot, that it got a buff. I do appreciate how you always know all the statistics and numbers for the equipment, and can lay out the actual facts of their performance. Yeah, my one difficulty with the Striker is my missiles hitting the edge of the bridge or ledge when I'm below the target, I don't need to be very far below either, for it to happen. It's very difficult to rock up at just the right moment to loop the missile over the obstruction. (However, incidentally, it's not that hard to throw the missile out horizontally so that it will loop around cover just as the target moves behind it.) It is amusing when you have enough effect on people that they come after you. You know what other turret I experience it a lot with? The Vulcan. Playing it well, and in an unexpected (non-camping) style, pisses people off no end, it seems. It's devastatingly effective, and I'm glad it's not easy and not common.

On the one hand, I don't find Thunder to be really nerfed. I'm still seeing a lot of them in battles, and they're doing really well, often dominating like they used to (maybe not quite as much, which is good.) A double damage thunder is a horror. See, the projectile travels pretty darn fast for medium range, and with splash damage you don't even always need to hit. On the other hand, if they make Smoky a non-instantaneous projectile, I'm convinced that will absolutely ruin it. Smoky need a high level of precision, and there's no splash damage to cover sloppy aim. It will be fairly like a slightly longer range Ricochet, and you know how hard it is to hit targets that are not close with a Ricochet. A non-instantaneous Smoky is a terrible, terrible idea. We don't need another turret where you have to lead your target. Let the Smoky be the Smoky. It's not like it's exactly an effective long-range turret like the Rail, the Shaft, the lock-on Gauss.

I have a WO 2 account where I play the striker almost exclusively, and almost always with the hunter alteration. I find the alteration a bit OP, and I hope the devs don't notice. The lock-on is really fast, and seldom is the opponent close enough to cover to get behind it, even if they're aware. It's best at medium range, on the mobile hunter hull that I use it on, but I hit targets all the way across the map all the time, because they're not paying attention. The only time I have a problem is when the opponent is at quite close range and there are a lot of obstructions for him to move in and out of. At that point the lock-on does take too long, and I have to work to remember to just do a no-scope/free shot, which you're right is easy enough, with practice. I just have to remember not to be attached to getting a lock-on. But I find the alteration very effective. Just yesterday I was playing that account in a Magistral CP, and by the end of the battle most of the opponents were going after me with extreme prejudice--they were so pissed at the relentless barrage of automatic-hit missiles. It's almost unfair. ?

Or they could fix that horrible, horrible HTML5 camera behavoir. It physically gives me headaches and it degrades my skill a lot, very noticeably. If it is not improved by the time the Flash client disappears I will absolutely stop playing, The flash is enjoyable to play, very smooth, and skill with the controls is rewarding. The HTMl5 is jerky and clunky, disappointing, frustrating, and not worth the time. Sad to say.

In settings, please allow us to to set multiple keys for activation of supplies and overdrive. In Flash, my son and I use different keys--and the opposite hand--to activate supplies.

Oh I agree with you completely. Tanki has been very clever, I mean. I think it's helped their bottom line a lot, but degraded the game. Everything is aimed at making it easier to kill and be killed. They want the shortest possible life-span for all players in the battle; it increases frustration and the immediate quest for more dopamine; spawn and re-spawn. Despite their constant talk of strategy and tactics, they've removed a lot of that deliberately.

And I wonder if some players will do a lot of gold-dropping (which I've also disliked, as everybody abandons the game-mode objective) to pull enemies away from the point. That will be what passes for strategy, I guess. All battles in MM are drugfests these days. While I'm on memory lane, remember about six years ago when the battle-chat would be full of 'drugger!' and 'buyer' if someone used supplies too obviously? Tanki has done a good job of changing that.

It will probably be a lot like the old Polygon control points. Remember that? Crystal-farming bloodbath of firebirds and twins, with thunders splashing the area from medium range? Average life-span: 3 seconds. Which means it will probably be popular despite the bone-headed play style. In fact, maybe even more so because there will be the 'thrill' of scrambling to get to each new point 'firstest with the mostest'. I don't know, could be interesting. Each new point will be in different surroundings; most turrets will probably be able to get in on the action, but sometimes they will have to scramble.